Pattern of PCS exam

Scheme of PCS exam  Conducted by PPSC :

• The selection process of PPSC for filling posts in various departments based on the PCS exam will commence with inviting applications from the candidates, who fulfill the qualifying criteria. The candidates who apply for Punjab Civil services examination in response to the advertisement for these posts will be registered by filling Online Application Form, a link of which is available on the website of the Punjab Public service Commission http://ppsc.gov.in
• No candidate who applies for PCS Examination through any other means but through Online Application Form shall be eligible to take this Examination. Candidates who register and fill in Online Application Form, would be issued Admit Cards prior to the conduct of Preliminary Competitive Examination as described in the instructions for filling up Online Application Form.
• There is no scrutiny carried out of the applications with reference to eligibility/authenticity etc. So issue of Admit Cards for PCS does not confer any right to the candidate about his eligibility. The candidature of the candidate shall be considered provisional till the time of verification of documents of the candidate before the interview or at the time of interview, when the candidate shall produce his/her original certificates for verification by the Commission.
• If any document/certificate/statement of the candidate is found false or forged or make him/her  ineligible before the interview or at the time of the interview or any time thereafter, his/her candidature may be rejected and further action will be taken as per law.
• Essential steps involved in the selection process of PCS and Allied services examination are:

i) Preliminary Competitive Examination; and
ii) Main Competitive Examination (written and Interview).

Procedure and scheme for the Preliminary Examination of PCS:

The preliminary competitive examination will consist of two papers of 200 marks each and shall comprise of objective type (multiple choice) questions. The detail is as follows:-

Note:

• Both the papers will be of objective type multiple choice questions.
• Duration of each paper for preliminary examination will be two hours. However, visually impaired candidates will be given additional 20 minutes.
• There will be no negative marking in the written preliminary examination test, however there may be negative marking for any objections to the Answer Key found false/frivolous/not supported by authentic evidence..
• The question paper shall be bilingual and shall be printed in English (Roman script) and Punjabi (Gurumukhi script) except for questions where candidates’ proficiency in language is to be tested.
• The standard of questions would be to test the knowledge as is expected of a person who has attained education at least up to graduation level.
• Preliminary Examination for PCS is only a screening test for selecting candidates who would be eligible to take the Main Examination and the marks obtained in this Examination shall not be counted towards the merit of the candidates arrived at after the Main Examination.
• Candidates equal to 13 times of the vacancies advertised in each category would qualify from amongst those appearing in the Preliminary Examination for the Main Examination, provided that, such number of candidates are available and, are otherwise eligible for admission to the Main Examination.

Procedure and scheme for the Main Examination of PCS:

Note:-

• All papers shall be descriptive in nature and duration of each paper will be three hours. Visually impaired candidates will, however, be allowed an extra time of 30 minutes in each paper.
• The main competitive examination for PCS shall include seven compulsory papers.
• Candidates will have the option to attempt all the papers, except the language papers inPunjabi or English medium.
• Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in Punjabi language may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in Punjabi language.
• The question papers other than language papers will be set in English. However, when any candidate opts for attempting any paper(s) in Punjabi medium, the question papers shall be printed in Punjabi accordingly.
• Interview shall be conducted for only those candidates who qualify on the basis of their performance in the main competitive examination and who fulfil the criteria of eligibility.
• No candidate shall be eligible to appear in the interview for PCS unless he/she obtains 45% marks in the aggregate of all the papers (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) including at least 25% marks in each paper provided that if in main competitive examination, a sufficient number of candidates do not obtain 45% marks in the aggregate (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), the Commission may at their discretion lower this percentage to not below 40% (read 35 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), however, the minimum percentage for each paper shall remain unchanged.
• No candidate shall be considered to have qualified the competitive examination for PCS unless he obtains at least 45% marks in the aggregate in the main examination including interview marks (read 40 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), except in the case of main competitive examination for which this percentage has been lowered to not less than 40% (read 35 % for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) by the Commission in which case the qualifying percentage shall be as determined by the Commission
• From amongst the candidates who have appeared for the Main written examination, candidates not more than three times the number of vacancies advertised in each category shall be called for the interview, provided that, such number of candidates are available and, are otherwise eligible for the Interview.
• Names of qualified candidates shall be arranged in order of merit according to the aggregate marks obtained in the main written examination and the interview.
• Note: In the event that the aggregate marks obtained in the Written and Interview parts of the Main Examination for PCS taken together of two or more candidates are equal, the candidate securing higher marks in the written part of the Main Examination shall be ranked higher. Should the marks in the written part of the Main Examination of such candidates are also equal, the candidate securing higher marks in the aggregate of the General Studies papers in the written part of the Main Examination shall rank higher. Should those also be equal, the candidate older in age shall rank higher. (AGGREGATE OF GENERAL STUDIES PAPER MEANS AGGREGATE OF GENERAL STUDY PAPER-I, PAPER-II, PAPER-III AND PAPER-IV)